Jury Rules in Favor of Tsuburaya!

[lhb412]

Which I'm a little confused about. Hanuman being a Hindu deity, that culture frowns upon references to him. M'baku's line in the Black Panther movie referring to Hanuman was censored/removed in many lands that are predominantly Hindu. How Sands can turn him into a clownish superhero in this day and age is beyond me....

Despite strong Hindu roots in the country's history and culture actual practicing Hindus are a small minority in Thailand.

[O.Supreme]

Which I'm a little confused about. Hanuman being a Hindu deity, that culture frowns upon references to him. M'baku's line in the Black Panther movie referring to Hanuman was censored/removed in many lands that are predominantly Hindu. How Sands can turn him into a clownish superhero in this day and age is beyond me....

Despite strong Hindu roots in the country's history and culture actual practicing Hindus are a small minority in Thailand.

Sure I get that, but I'm guessing then, those movies never made it to India and other predominantly Hindu nations.

[lhb412]

^Man, I don't know! Falls outside of my area of expertise, but I do know that plenty of Indian movies have feature Hanuman in some capacity.

[klen7]

I see Ultras!


Premiered at the Thailand Toy Expo yesterday

[lhb412]

You know, Sompote wants Will Smith to play Hanuman in a movie!

[klen7]

Seems like TsuPro feels the decision frees up the US market but not the international market

http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2018/06/the ... -globally/

so far the jurisdiction is different in every country that we went to court regarding the case all over the world. With only winning a case in the district court of America, we are faced with impossibilities to bringing it [Ultraman] all over the world

But a certain someone made Ultraman their own. It’s because of that person we began to lose support, such as from TOHO Studios, and eventually lost that youthful spirit along the way.

There’s a huge audience that watch the Ultraman series. But to be honest, the current Ultraman is not Ultraman. Even from a fan or family’s point of view, the original series is a work that incorporates a message, but we’ve lost even that. Making it so that toy or card sales are good…there’s no spirit in that.

Hideaki Tsuburaya is Eiji's grandson and former President of Tsuburaya Productions

[Dark Heart]

Good, perhaps now they can finally release the CBS dub of ULTRA-Q and the Cinar dub of ULTRA SEVEN on home video.

[lhb412]

Hideaki Tsuburaya is Eiji's grandson and former President of Tsuburaya Productions

I disliked this statement from him, as it seems more like a public airing of grievances about the current state of the franchise than anything else. Tsuburaya's Pro. smartly adapted the heavily merchandisable tact of all the successful kid shows in order to compete in today's marketplace and have crawled their way out of ruin. Now they're n a better position to do new things and expand.

(Plus: for all the toyetic aspects Ultraman X is a top 5 show!)

[jellydonut25]

Hideaki Tsuburaya is Eiji's grandson and former President of Tsuburaya Productions

I disliked this statement from him, as it seems more like a public airing of grievances about the current state of the franchise than anything else. Tsuburaya's Pro. smartly adapted the heavily merchandisable tact of all the successful kid shows in order to compete in today's marketplace and have crawled their way out of ruin. Now they're n a better position to do new things and expand.

(Plus: for all the toyetic aspects Ultraman X is a top 5 show!)

Perhaps he's drawing a line in his brain from "Ultraman has been forced to be largely a Japanese market-only by Chaiyo" to "as a result it was forced to become about toy sales to try to squeeze every penny out of that one market as possible" and just isn't elucidating it well?

Either way, as Eiji's grandson and former pres, he can speak his mind if he pleases.

[Rody]

I can sympathize with Hideaki Tsuburaya at least a little bit - the toy gimmicks have been consistently hokey and sometimes totally distracting in the recent shows - but we've gotten some quality stories/episodes from these series regardless; and when the shows have really stumbled, I think it has everything to do with simply shoddy writing, rather than a forced toy gimmick.
Still, I'd be happy to see the franchise expand beyond that format once again. I'd also really like their other, already existing programs such as Bio Planet Woo and Neo Ultra Q to become accessible for US fans.

[hanshotfirst1138]

Does this mean we'll get good quality versions of the first few series?

This was precisely my question too.

[RobD]

I would *think* that this decision DOES pave the way for Tsuburaya to start bringing back the Ultraman I.P. back to North America.

I've been tweeting both Hasbro and Neca Toys to contact Tsuburaya regarding a possible toy line and I'd think official North American blu-rays of
the remastered Japanese versions are at least "in talks" with companies in the States now. I'd think Shout Factory would be interested
in releasing the official blu-rays and even contacted them but got no response.

Hopefully we'll here something *this year* regarding Tsuburaya's Ultraman plans for North America.

[lhb412]

I am not a fan of this Ultraman Funko pop:

https://mobile.twitter.com/FunkoPOPsNew ... 2592595968

... but I have to wonder: is this going to be the first piece of Ultra merchandise officially licensed by Tsuburaya in the US in who knows how long?

The font on the packaging certainly looks like the Ultraman English language logo that Tsuburaya has been plastering on all their stuff lately.

[RobD]

Love that Tsuburaya appears to be on their way with licensing out Ultraman merchandise for the United States with an
official Funko Pop! Vinyl figure.

Don't like the design of the eyes and that it's apparently a Barnes and Knobles "Exclusive" but I'll track one down to
support Tsuburaya!

Edit: The U.S. version is pretty much the exact same design as the Asian Funko Pop. I forgot Funko Pop figures
have the "iconic" black dot eyes on pretty much all their figures so I can get past the look of it considering that.

Asian Ultraman Funko Pop!

https://www.amazon.com/Funko-Pop-Asia-U ... +funko+pop

[Baltan II]

... but I have to wonder: is this going to be the first piece of Ultra merchandise officially licensed by Tsuburaya in the US in who knows how long?

Bandai's Ultra-Act and SH Figuarts Ultraman figures have been released in the US via Bluefin for a long time. There was definitely a time earlier on where limitations kept the full line from getting a release, but that hasn't been an issue in a long while.

[O.Supreme]

^I wonder if that will even be an official US release however. Funko does a ton of international figures that never get released in the US



...and yes I know this is inspired by the actual Hindu deity, not Sampote Sands goofy Ultraman wanna-be, there are actually several of them

Edit: The U.S. version is pretty much the exact same design as the Asian Funko Pop. I forgot Funko Pop figures
have the "iconic" black dot eyes on pretty much all their figures so I can get past the look of it considering that.

Thanks for the clarification

[Baltan II]

^I wonder if that will even be an official US release however. Funko does a ton of international figures that never get released in the US

It’s a Barnes and Noble exclusive so yes, it’s coming. They’re also teasing the future release of the other Funko Asia Ultraman figures as well, so the whole set may be reissued here. Not that I’ll be hunting down the vile things.

[hanshotfirst1138]

Man, I was wondering if this finally got settled or what given the announcements about Mill Creek’s new Blu-rays. Guess now I know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RobD]

Han-This was indeed settled. A US court ruled unanimously in favor of Tsuburaya Productions Japan and FINALLY ended the legal battle with Chaiyo that had take place over a number
of years. https://www.quinnemanuel.com/the-firm/o ... -ultraman/

[lhb412]

Holy maceral. The con I'm at has sone Chaiyo Ultra merch. Do I need a figure of Ultraman Millennium?

[kidnicky]

When people say the “cinar “ dub of Ultraseven,does that mean the one from TNT?

[O.Supreme]

When people say the “cinar “ dub of Ultraseven,does that mean the one from TNT?

Yes.

Cinar English dub

In 1985, Turner Program Services licensed the series in a 15-year contract from Tsuburaya Productions, who provided the English dubbed versions produced in Honolulu by Tsuburaya-Hawaii, Inc. in the mid-1970s. Finding this English version to be lacking, Turner commissioned the Canadian children's programming production house, Cinar, to dub all 49 episodes for run in syndication.[17] The TPS/Cinar produced episodes featured new opening and closing credits, eyecatches, new episode names, and even a change of name for the character of Anne Yuri, who was dubbed as "Donna". Cinar edited the episodes for violence, language and commercial time and featured new music cues.

Unsatisfied with Cinar's resultant work, Turner put the series into their vaults until 1994, when they were alerted that the episodes were never broadcast. Ultra Seven was dusted off for the "Toons 'Til Noon" and "MonsterVision" blocks on TNT. The "Toons 'Til Noon" broadcasts received substantially heavy editing to make them suitable for the time slot, while the "MonsterVision" broadcasts were the full-length Cinar adaptations. Episodes 3 and 5-7 were missing or mislabeled and were never broadcast. Clips from the series were later used in the "Messages from Space" segments on the animated variety show Cartoon Planet, which aired on TBS and Cartoon Network. When the contract expired in 2001, Turner returned all the materials (film, tapes, masters) to Tsuburaya Productions.[16]

I find it interesting that *if* this information is accurate, than TPC had access to the Hawaiian dubs in 1985. Why they would choose to destroy them, or *lose* them in the past 34 years is beyond me. I'd love to see them included in Mill Creek's upcoming set. I guess we'll know soon if the dubs are included in the Ultra Q & Ultraman sets

[kidnicky]

I love that TNT dub

[O.Supreme]

I can understand if you were younger and have a nostalgic attachment. But for me, since I was older, I could tell the quality was inferior to what other studios had done in the 60's/70's. Still I recorded as many episodes as I could when it was on TNT (despite its random airtimes, and random airings of episodes), years later I got a set of the dubs to keep for posterity, even after getting the S!F release of the whole series.

I would be surprised if the Cinar dubs show up on the Mill Creek release, they certainly weren't present on S!F. But to make a fan like you happy, I hope they do, I'd certainly not reject the notion.

[lhb412]

Check SpacehunterM's YouTube. He got ahold of the Hawaiian dub of a couple of episodes and did comparisons between that and the Cinar dub. It's obvious Cinar is using the Hawaiian dub as a base, and while their dub is less respectful (and severely edited) the voice acting is stronger than the monotone Hawaiian dub.